Terra Firma
by Temari-Desert-Storm
Summary: Crying gains you nothing. Remembering these words, Aqua recalls her first encounter with the Keyblade and the boy who changed her life... PreBBS Part 1
1. Remembrance

**Chapter 1 - Remembrance**

* * *

Realm of Darkness, Two years before _Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

Aqua stared along the dark beach, watching the silent waves break against the shore. She was alone, or so she hoped: having Heartless attack her and catch her off guard was the last thing she wanted. 'It's been too long,' she mused, 'Much to long. I've lost track of how long I've been here. Years, probably, but there's no way to be sure.' She grimaced. "How did I get myself into this mess?" she sighed, and winced at the thought.

She knew perfectly well what the reason was. She had tried to save her friends and failed. Ven was asleep, resting peacefully in the one place where no one would find him. Terra was another matter, his body possessed and his soul waiting in a place she couldn't find. Neither of them was truly safe, but it was all she could do. She had tried to help them and failed, and her current situation was how she was paying for it. 'But, did anything I do mean anything? Did I save Terra, even a little, with my actions? Or did I make everything a whole lot worse?'

Against her wishes, tears started rolling down her cheeks and she wiped them away quickly, only for them to be replaced by more. 'I can't cry. I shouldn't cry. I swore that I wouldn't.' She sighed and sat down, staring out at the pale moon along the horizon. 'I promised I wouldn't…' Quietly, she thought back, back to when she first learned of the Keyblade, not long before she got her own…

"_Crying gains you nothing. It can't bring people back, and it only brings more pain…_"

* * *

Aqua's home world, Fifteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

Aqua's home world was a large continent bordered by an ocean, and she loved it. She would spend hours walking along the beach, sometimes with others, but mostly by herself. She enjoyed her time alone the most, listening to the waves, smelling the salt, and enjoying the cool breezes that wafted against her arms and legs. It may have seemed strange for a ten year old girl to enjoy spend time with the ocean more than spending time with her friends, but that was how Aqua had always been. It was how she always believed she would be.

Things, however, rarely stay as we want them to stay, and Aqua's life changed drastically one day. It was a routine day for her: she went to school, went home to grab a snack, and then headed out to the beach. She had changed out of her uniform during her pit stop and was dressed in her usual tank top and shorts, ignoring the fact that other girls commented on her boyish wardrobe. She had never cared much for expensive or pretty clothes, only what was comfortable.

She arrived at the beach at her usual time and decided which path she would take, picking the left, rockier path as opposed to the right sandy one. She worked her way along the shoreline, clambering along the rocks with ease, careful not to skin her knees. She knew the path well enough to know which rocks to climb and which rocks would try to flatten her if she grabbed them. There were a few times where she lost her grip, but she only scratched her palms slightly.

After about an hour of climbing and walking, she got to her usual resting spot; a little expanse of beach between some rock clusters, in front of a large tide pool. She sat down and ate he snack as she watched seagulls sailing through the air, feeling spray from the waves on her legs, arms, and face. After a while, she stuffed the remnants of her snack into her pocket and continued. She climbed up to a rock ledge, her final destination, and stopped.

Standing on the ledge was a little black creature unlike anything she had ever seen. She took a few cautious steps towards it, wondering if it was some kind of dog, but as she got within a few meters, it started twitching and turned to face her. It had hollow yellow eyes and, at the sight of it, Aqua suddenly got a horrible feeling that the creature was dangerous. She took a few steps back, but the creature didn't move, still twitching and starting at her. Out of nowhere, three more of the creatures appeared out of the ground, rising to stare at her as well. Aqua tried to back up a bit more, even more frightened, but she had reached the edge, and there was too much of a long, uneven drop for her to think of jumping. All at once, the group of creatures ran at her, wobbling along on unsteady legs. Letting out a scream, she covered her eyes and braced herself for their attack.

The attack never came. All she heard was a splattering sound and felt a rush of aim brush past her. Cautiously, she peeked out from behind her fingers and gasped. The strange black creatures were gone, replaced with a boy, standing with his back to her. He had messy brown hair, which was odd to her. Brown was an abnormal hair color in her home world, shades of blond and black being the some of the more common, natural ones. He was also wearing beige pants, which was odd considering they were on the beach in the middle of summer, and a black tank top. His left arm was covered in some sort of metal armor, mixing colors of black and brown, as well as his feet. He acted as though he didn't notice her, his head turning slightly as he looked around.

"Um, e-excuse me?" she spoke up, trying to catch his attention, "Did you see some odd black things around here? I-I'm pretty sure they were here just a…" She trailed off as he turned around.

The boy was her age, but with a face far too serious than that of any normal ten year old. His blue eyes regarded her with interest for a moment, but none of that interest reached the rest of his face. He was far more muscular than any boy her age was, and even some older ones, but that wasn't what caught most of her attention. Supported by both of his hands was a weapon that looked like a cross between a sword and a giant key, almost bigger than he was. The hilt consisted of a black grip with blueish green metal wrapping from the cross-guard to the end of the hilt, creating a ring to act as protection for his hand. The blade was a thick bar of brown metal, indented all the way down both sides of the shaft except for in the middle, allowing the lighter brown bordering metal to form a ridge around both sides. The shaft ended in a misshapen section of metal that resembled a fragmented boulder, the metal darker than that of the shaft with more of the lighter metal bordering and forming the outline of sections of the boulder, but the section was flat. Hanging from the end of the hilt was a vial filled with dirt on a grey metal chain.

Without saying a word to her, he turned and walked off. Having seen the strange weapon made her realize that he had killed off the strange black creatures, but when she thought to thank him for helping her, he had already vanished.

* * *

After having backtracked all the way back home, the sun was setting, leaving long shadows that threatened to smother her ask she walked. She laughed and ran around the edges, playing a game that she was a warrior, fighting off the monstrous shadows. The gate to her house was unlocked, just as she had left it before she had left, but she knew her father was home. He worked at home, especially because she lived in the largest house on the continent, the President's house. She slid off her sandy shoes inside the door and rushed up the stairs in her socks to her father's office.

Her father, hard at work, didn't hear her ease the door open and slide inside. Smiling mischievously, she snuck up behind him and, making sure he wasn't writing something important, she grabbed his elbows around the back of his chair. He jumped, but then started laughing, standing up to slide the chair out of the way before he enveloped her in a suffocating hug. She giggled and hugged him back, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Welcome home, Father," she laughed, when he had released her. "How was work?"

He sighed, running a hand through his graying black hair. "A pain, as usual. Forms, bills, more forms, and all kinds of petitions. I can never seem to get a rest around here. There have also been more complaints about 'moving shadows' from all over the continent. I'm not sure what to think anymore."

Aqua used her father's chair to sit down on his desk. 'Moving shadows? Like the ones I saw?' she wondered. She was about to mention this to her father, but a knock at the door cut her off.

Her father's secretary, one of the many assistants Aqua had included in her makeshift family, opened the door. "I'm sorry to bother you, sir," he breathed, struggling with his asthma, "but there's a man here to see you, and he's very insistent that he sees you now."

Aqua glanced over at the clock on her father's desk. 7:14 PM. "Isn't it really late?" she asked. 'It's almost my bedtime too, but if I don't mention it, maybe Father will let me listen to his meeting.'

The secretary nodded. "Right now. He insists that his business is of the utmost importance." He loosened his tie, trying to give himself more air. "Shall I send him up?"

Her father sighed. "Well, if he says it's urgent, I might as well see him now. Send him here."

The secretary disappeared and, a few minutes later, returned with the guests. The man, presumably the one who wanted to speak with her father, appeared to be in his mid-to-late-twenties, with long black hair tied in a topknot. He wore a long white jacket with a hood and pair of long, flared beige pants that Aqua had seen samurais wearing on TV. He wore a dark blue shirt with an X on it under a dark green metal chest plate. His shoes were also armor. His eyes were weary but sharp, and he sported a dark mustache and a soul patch. The person accompanying him was the boy Aqua had met on the beach.

The man stepped forward and held out his hand to Aqua's father. "I am Eraqus, Keyblade Master, head of the Keyblade order, and caretaker of the Land of Departure." He indicated the boy with his other hand. "This is Terra, my apprentice." Terra bowed, respectful but not flattering her father's position, and then proceeded to stare off into space. "I thank you for agreeing to see us at such a late hour," Eraqus continued.

Her father shook his hand. "Not at all. I'm President Tatsuza Nozume, but if you're coming here on such important business, I'm sure you already knew that," he chuckled, taking on his usual light-hearted nature, which Aqua called his 'Important People Act'. "This is my daughter, Aqua."

She jumped off the table and curtsied as best she could in shorts. "Nice to meet you."

Eraqus nodded his approval with a smile as her father began talking, but Aqua ignored their conversation. She walked over to Terra and smiled, trying to be nice, but he didn't seem to notice. He continued staring off into space as if she wasn't there. 'Maybe he doesn't realize I'm here,' she mused, and tilted her head into what she believed to be his line of sight. The skin at the corners of his eyes crinkled, but he didn't move. Frustrated, she waved her hand in front of his face.

"Aqua, don't do that. It's rude," her father reprimanded, sounding a bit annoyed at her for interrupting his conversation.

She blushed. "Sorry."

Eraqus smiled. "Please excuse my apprentice. He's not comfortable around people, so he pretends to ignore them to spare himself trouble."

Terra broke his stare to glare at his master, but said nothing.

Aqua giggled. "I just wanted to thank him for saving me earlier."

Both of the adults looked at her in surprise for a moment. Then Eraqus looked at his apprentice as if to ask 'So that's what you were doing earlier?' Terra glanced back at him, his eyes reading an affirmative.

Her father ignored this exchange. "What do you mean, Aqua?"

"I was at the beach earlier and I saw these little black things with yellow eyes," she explained, "They came at me and I… kinda got scared, and when I looked up, he was there and the black things were gone. So, I figured it was him who got rid of them."

"More 'moving shadows'," he father sighed, running his hand through his hair again before turning to Terra, "Well, it seems I owe you my thanks as well, for saving my daughter."

Terra nodded once, not even opening his mouth to breathe. Eraqus placed a hand on his apprentice's shoulder. "Though he may seem ungrateful, he also knows that it's his job. Those creatures, 'moving shadows' as you call them, are in fact Heartless, beings that we who wield the Keyblade are hunting."

Aqua listened intently. 'Keyblade? Oh, that sword-key thing Terra was holding! That must be a Keyblade. But how could something like that hurt those things?'

"The power of the Keyblade is not to be taken lightly," Eraqus continued, as if he could read her mind, "Keyblades are very powerful weapons, designed to fight creatures, like the Heartless, who threaten the balance of the universe. Of course, Keyblades are very selective of their wielders, making their powers desired by many who cannot wield it themselves. We've come here to defeat the Heartless residing in your world, and to prevent them from coming back," he added to her father, "With your permission, of course."

Her father nodded. "You have my permission, but we'll have to discuss the finer details before I let you go about your business. Politics and all that stuff; you know how it is. The discussions, I presume, can wait until morning?"

"Of course," Eraqus agreed, looking down at his apprentice, "We've traveled a long way to get here, and I'm sure my apprentice is tired." Terra raised an eyebrow at that statement, which Eraqus returned, but neither of them spoke a word in argument.

"There's plenty of space here at my home, so you're welcome to stay here until you can find accommodations more to your liking," her father offered, gesturing around him.

Eraqus smiled. "We'd be honored."

Aqua watched quietly as her father led the Keyblade Master out of the room, talking about some adult matters, and sighed. Looking up, she noticed Terra staring at her, but when she met his eyes, he turned and walked away.


	2. Complications

**Chapter 2 - Complications**

* * *

Aqua's home world, Fifteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

When Aqua awoke the next morning, she walked into the kitchen, rubbing sleep from her eyes. There were plenty of people in the house who cooked, but she liked making her own food, as well as using the time to make a fresh lunch for school. On this particular morning, however, she walked into the normally deserted kitchen, without having turned on the lights, and almost shrieked when she saw someone there, masked in shadow by the light of the fridge. She carefully reached behind her and, on tiptoe, turned on the light.

Terra lifted his head out of the fridge and stared at her, his face blank, but his eyebrows knitted together at her expression. He grabbed a two-litre carton of orange juice from the fridge, kicked the door shut, and walked out, leaving her alone, still in shock. It took her a few minutes to figure out what was going on.

"Startled?" Eraqus asked, walking past her into the kitchen.

She blinked. "Uh… Terra… he…"

Eraqus began rooting through the contents of the fridge. "He was already in here. I can tell. He can never keep things in order."

"But…" she muttered, still trying to process everything. "Why was he in here so early?"

"Terra likes training in the morning. Pushups, mostly. He gets up earlier than anyone else and spends at least an hour doing them. A lot earlier than you're accustom to, it seems."

For the first time, Aqua realized she was still in her nightgown, and both Terra and Master Eraqus were both fully dressed. "Oh…" Hurriedly, she ran back to her room and changed into her school uniform, and then rushed back to the kitchen. When she returned, Terra was ripping up the juice carton, throwing the pieces in the trash bin. Aqua frowned and grabbed what remained of it from him. "This needs to be recycled," she lectured, collecting the pieces from the trash. When she looked up, though, Terra was gone. Annoyed, she sat out to look for him, but she couldn't find him, and she didn't have time to waste.

She made her lunch for the day, given a wide berth by the cooks, giving her a good opportunity to get the brown-haired boy off her mind. Finished, she grabbed her bag from her room and left for school. All day, she couldn't stop thinking about Terra, his refusal to talk, and his odd ways. She also thought about the Heartless, wondering what exactly they were and where they came from. Her thoughts caused her to miss her name in attendance twice, and she answered a question in math wrong, much to her embarrassment. By the time she got home, she was too frustrated to think of going to the beach. Much to her chagrin, Terra was outside, kneeling down to her lawn, glaring.

"It's fake grass," she called to him, "It was put in a long time ago. There's gravel under there, and a lot of it." Cringing, he stood up and walked to the front door, holding it open for her. She raised her eyebrows at this, but didn't ask him about it, knowing he wouldn't answer. "You know, you can talk to me. You can trust me, too, if that's what you're worried about."

The corners of Terra's eyelids crinkled, which Aqua was learning meant that he was angry or annoyed, and walked off. Sighing, she went to her room, did her homework, and then decided to keep her father company in his office. When she arrived, however, Terra was standing outside the door, leaned up against the wall, arms cross against his chest. "You again," she groaned, rolling her eyes. Terra stared at her, his entire face blank. "Thanks for yesterday, but now it's getting annoying. You're always hanging around. I kinda wish you hadn't come." Terra grunted acknowledgement, and Aqua almost jumped. 'He… he made a noise… Maybe, if I keep talking…' "You know," she continued, "I don't see why you had to come. We probably coulda handled those… Heartless things… by ourselves." This time, Terra chuckled, but he somehow managed not to smile. 'At least he's reacting to me now,' she mused, 'Maybe just a little more…' Before she could open her mouth to start talking again, the door to her father's office opened, and he and Master Eraqus walked out.

"Come, Terra," Eraqus said, his face serious. Terra didn't even bat an eyelid at his master's disposition, following him silently.

Aqua sighed, and her father laughed. "Something wrong?"

She followed him into his office and sat on his desk as he sat in his chair. "It's Terra. I want to talk to him, but he won't say anything. I got him to laugh before, but he won't actually say anything."

"Aqua, sometimes things aren't as simple as that," he sighed, holding her hands in front of her. "Remember when your mother passed?"

She nodded slowly. Her mother had died a year back of cancer, and afterwards, Aqua had been a zombie, not talking to anyone. She had refused to go to school and, at points, had refused to eat. It had taken her a month before she had found the will to move on with her life and make her mother happy.

"You were so brave, like a lion," he commented, making her laugh. "Sometimes, though, people don't get over things like that. Sometimes, people who have sad things happen to them end up becoming bad people. Sometimes, they stay sad for a very long time. I can't say for sure, but Terra looks like he's still very sad about something, and that might be why he won't talk to you."

Aqua thought the idea over for a minute. "Do… you think… I could help him?"

Her father smiled. "Don't try to help him if he doesn't want you to. Get him to trust you first, and then see if he wants your help."

"Okay. Thanks, Father," she smiled, giving him a quick hug before hurrying off to bed.

* * *

The next morning, Aqua woke up early and hurried to the kitchen. As she had expected, Terra was digging through the contents of the fridge, looking for something. She walked to his side and peered in with him. He paused to look at her out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing, resuming his search.

"What are you looking for?" she asked politely. He didn't answer. "Can I make you something?" He continued to ignore her, grabbing a bag of sliced bread, mayonnaise, four different kinds of cold cuts, and three different packages of sliced cheese from the fridge before kicking the refrigerator shut. Aqua hurriedly turned on the light as he grabbed a knife from one of the drawers. "How did you…?"

"I mapped your house yesterday," he cut her off, making her jump. His voice was clear and had some amount of volume to it, but it didn't echo in the large kitchen, as hers did.

She stared. "You… you… talked…"

He raised his eyebrows at her, but didn't reply. Instead, he turned back to the food on the counter and began to make sandwiches, spreading slices of bread along the surface before layering on mayonnaise. Then he opened the packages of meat and cheese, tossing random combinations together.

Aqua watched the process intently, her eyes following him as he wandered along, placing slices on top to finish. "Why didn't you talk to me before?"

Instead of answering, Terra piled his sandwiches on a plate from one of the cupboards and left. Aqua glowered after him, annoyed that he was still ignoring her, but knew there was nothing she could do. She had to take things slowly so he didn't start hating her. Giving up for the moment, she prepared to gather supplies for making her own lunch, but stopped when she noticed Terra had left one of his sandwiches behind. She hesitated, wondering if she should take it to him. 'He's probably long gone now, though. I won't find him, and I don't have time.' She stared at the sandwich. 'Then again…'

Aqua bagged the sandwich and took it to school in her lunch.

* * *

When Aqua returned home, Terra was sitting outside, sitting cross-legged and glaring at her fake lawn. Cautiously, she walked over and sat down next to him, following his eyes to where he was looking. There wasn't anything there, not even a bug. 'Maybe he doesn't like that grass,' she mused, standing again with a shrug. She looked down again, wondering if she had missed something, but now Terra was staring at her. Their eyes met for what seemed like hours before Terra stood up and walked away. Aqua's head was spinning. 'Whoa… I… I feel like… Did he do something to me?'

Putting it off for a moment, she turned to go inside. Terra held the door open for her again, but this time, she ignored him. She figured that he would disappear like yesterday, but he stayed where he was, staring at her. Finally, she had to ask. "What?"

Terra blinked and shook his head. "Nothing." Then he turned and walked away.

* * *

A week passed like this, with Aqua observing Terra's morning habits, going to school, coming home to see him glaring at her lawn, and then having him vanish for the rest of the evening. She barely got much of a chance to talk to him at that time, but on her weekend, her father called her into his office. Master Eraqus and Terra were already in there, sitting down in chairs that had been brought in earlier by assistants.

Her father smiled when she entered the room. "Good, Aqua, you're here."

She sat down in another chair. "Sorry if I kept you waiting. Is something wrong, Father?"

"Not quite. Aqua, I wanted to let you know that," he cleared his throat, "as of tomorrow, Terra will be joining you at school."

It took a moment for the words to sink in. "He's… what? Really?"

Her father nodded. "Yes. It's only for a little while, I'm not sure how long, but he'll be attending school with you. I've arranged it so you're in the same class, so I want the two of you to get along."

'How can I get along with him if he won't talk to me?' she wondered, but didn't voice it. "I understand, Father." She peeked at Terra, who was sitting beside her, but he looked as calm as ever. 'He was told earlier, I guess. I wonder what he thinks of it…'

"Good," her father smiled, standing up. "We'll leave you two to organize things."

He left the room, and Eraqus followed him out, but not before turning at Terra. "Behave," he ordered his apprentice, and then left.

Terra stood up and stretched his hands out, relieving his stiff fingers. Aqua stood up next him, staring at him. "Are you really coming to school with me?" Terra returned the stare before nodding. She sighed. "Do you have a uniform?" Again, a nod. "Well, I should check to make sure you're wearing it right. The teachers get really mad if you're not wearing it properly."

Without replying, he walked off towards his room, her following behind him. When they got there, he grabbed the uniform off a chair and went into the adjoining bathroom. While he was gone, she looked around the room. The room was dark; the curtains pulled tight even that late at night. She didn't open them, using the light from the hallway to see. The room radiated a funny smell, something she identified as sweat. She searched the whole room, but she didn't see anything that indicated he was living in there: no bag anywhere in the room, no clothes in the closet, and nothing on the tables or nightstand. 'I wanted to get to know him better, but I guess he didn't bring anything with him…'

The bathroom door opened and Terra walked out, wearing her school's male uniform. It was plain, consisting of only a white shirt and dark green pants with a matching tie, but something felt off as she looked him over. Then she realized what it was.

"That," she said, point at the armor on his arm. "You can't wear that."

He looked down at his arm, and then back at her. "I have to."

She scowled. "You can't. The teachers will get mad at you."

"Let them," he replied calmly. "I'm not taking it off."

"You have to," she pouted, and stepped forward to grab it. Terra backed up, almost reflexively, and she lunged for it. He twisted, having her collide with his other side, and she knocked them both to the floor. There, she wrestled against him for his arm, him carefully trying to push her off without hurting her. Noticing this, she backhanded him in the face and, while he was stunned, she grabbed for his arm. The armor appeared to extend from his hand to his shoulder, so she reached for the top. Her fingers suddenly sunk into the material, pressing a button, and she jumped back.

White light flashed as the armor on Terra's arm extended and expanded, shifting and changing until it wasn't just his arm covered in armor, but his entire self. The armor was fully body armor, but parts of it looked skintight. His legs and upper arms were covered in dark brown metal, the parts trailed with orange lines. His gauntlets were the same dark brown at the fingers, but the rest of it was golden, which was the same color as his boots, upper chest plate, and knee guards. His shins and forearms were covered in copper metal, as well as part of his thick lower chest plate. The pads on his hips and shoulders were black metal bordered by golden metal. His face was obscured by a helmet, golden with copper antenna, the front made of black glass.

Aqua stared as Terra stood up, looking almost a foot taller than before. With one hand, he reached for his left shoulder pad and tapped it, pushing the button again. The armor retracted back into his arm until he was back as he had looked ten minutes ago. Sighing in defeat, he started undoing the straps to his armor and dropped it on the bed.


	3. Life

**Chapter 3 - Life**

* * *

Aqua's home world, Fifteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

The next morning, Aqua walked to school feeling tense, Terra not far behind her. Whether he sensed her mood or was being his normal self, he hung back. Aqua's mind was filled with strange thoughts. She'd had a nightmare during the night and, while she couldn't remember exactly what had happened, she had woken up grumpy. However, when she got to school, some of that worry evaporated. Her three best friends, two girls she had been friends with since kindergarten and a boy from their class, were waiting outside for her. They waved as she ran over, wishing them good morning.

"It's Monday," her male friend complained, kicking the ground, "I wish we could have stayed home."

One of her female friends, a blond, elbowed him. "Maybe we could ask Aqua's dad to extend the weekend."

Aqua laughed. "You know I can't do that."

"Who's that?" her other friend, a redhead, asked, looking over Aqua's shoulder.

Turning around, Aqua saw they were all staring at Terra. "Oh, him. He's Terra. His father is a friend of my father," she lied flawlessly. Master Eraqus had drilled the story into their heads that morning, making sure both of them knew what to say. She had asked him why it was so important, and he had explained to her that it was to help maintain the balance of the worlds. Aqua had decided she would ask her father later. When she noticed he was staying far enough away that he wouldn't be included in conversation, she ran over and dragged him back. Terra fought back, digging his heels into the ground, but Aqua eventually got him to the group.

"Hello," they chorused politely, but Terra didn't respond, staring off in another direction. Aqua elbowed him, but that didn't make him join the conversation.

Her male friend sighed. "It seems he doesn't like us much, doesn't it?"

"Don't mind him!" Aqua laughed nervously, waving her hands in front of her, "He just don't talk much. He'll talk to you once he gets to know you. Right, Terra?"

Terra turned his head too look at her, the corners of his eyelids crinkling in annoyance, and then turned his head sharply back to where he was staring before.

The redhead stared at him for a moment before she gave Aqua a quick shrug, but the blond wasn't so forgiving. She looked like what she imagined Terra was feeling. "Maybe he thinks he's too good for us?" she asked snidely.

"You know," her male friend added, "Isn't 'Terra' a _girl's_ name?"

Suddenly, Terra snapped. His fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white enough that his veins could clearly be seen throughout the rest of his arms. His jaw went rigid and his eyes burned with an intense rage.

Aqua clamped a hand on his wrist, figuring out what he wanted to do. "You can't hurt my friends," she whispered hurriedly.

He almost growled. "I'd like to punch their faces in." It was the longest sentence she had ever heard him say, and she was glad he was able to maintain enough calm to keep his voice low.

"Master Eraqus would get angry," she mentioned, knowing that would stop him.

Realizing that she was right, Terra relaxed, wrestled his arm from her grasp and walked off in the direction of the school. Shrugging to her friends, she ran off after him. She had already lost him, as he walked a lot faster than she did, but when she went inside, he was standing in the doorway, staring out the window at the schoolyard.

"I never knew you could get that angry," she muttered, staring outside with him. "Have people made fun of you about it before?" Terra didn't respond, but his eyelids crinkled; his annoyed face. 'It's a yes, then.' "Why'd you come here, though?"

"I wanted to find class," he replied curtly.

She blinked. "But… there's plenty of time before class." He raised his eyebrows and motioned to a clock above his head. Class was staring in less than five minutes. "Plenty of time," she mumbled quietly. "Come on."

The bell rang on the way up the stairs to their classroom and they arrived before most of the other students. The teacher was very kind to Terra, even though he didn't say a word to her, and she seated him in one of the available desks near the back. As Aqua took her own seat, she noticed that Terra had already zoned out, staring out the window into nowhere.

The lessons proceeded as usual, making Aqua feel like it was a normal day. It continued like that for most of the morning, until the middle of math, when the teacher called on Terra to answer a question. At first, he didn't realize that someone was talking to him, but when he did, his eyes snapped forward. He regarded the board silently for a moment before he replied, "I don't know."

The teacher stared at him until his words sunk in. "You 'don't know'?" He nodded. "Don't know the answer, or don't know how to answer it?"

He mulled over the question. "Both."

By that time, everyone had stopped what they were doing and was staring at him. Aqua glanced at the board. The question was about an angle, and it was clearly a ninety-degree angle.

Someone from the front of the class piped up. "But we learned that last year."

Terra blinked. "I didn't."

Unsatisfied but knowing she wouldn't get anywhere, she moved on to someone else. Everyone gave Terra wary looks, but he didn't notice, his attention already back out the window. When class ended for lunch, Aqua walked over to him. "You don't know how to measure angles? What have you been learning?"

Terra thought for a moment. "Acceleration, multiplying large numbers, distance. I haven't learned trajectory yet," he added, gesturing to the board.

"You're confusing me," Aqua grumbled, rubbing her forehead. "Didn't you learn angles last year in school?"

"I've never been to school," Terra answered dryly, standing up and walking around her.

Terra didn't return to class after lunch, but no one could find him and no one bothered to look. Aqua was worried about him at first, but she got caught up in her class work and quickly forgot all about it. The day continued that way until her last class of the day, Gym class. By the end of class, she was tired and sweaty, incredibly happy when the teacher called for everyone to return to the change rooms, but she jumped when something stopped her. Terra had placed his hand on her shoulder, staring at her squarely. Her friends had noticed she wasn't following and stopped, turning back to her.

"Where have you been?" she hissed, but he shook his head.

"Something's here."

She felt a chill run up her spine. "Do you think… it's a Heartless?"

He nodded. "And close."

Suddenly, a horrified expression come over her friends faces, and a quake shook the ground. Aqua would have tumbled over, but Terra was bracing himself, holding her steady. Within a minute of recovering, her blond friend screamed and all hell broke loose, kids running frantically for the school. Terra turned around, but Aqua was frozen to the spot. She shivered when she heard Terra gulp.

"We're doomed, aren't we?" she asked, looking sideways at his face.

Terra was staring at whatever-it-was, eyes wide, but not in fear. He looked surprised. "At least, for a little while."

"How long until we stop being doomed?"

"Until Master Eraqus arrives," was his blunt reply.

Aqua rolled her eyes and groaned. That was when she decided to look behind her. The Heartless was larger than anything she could have imagined. It was almost twice the size of her school, looking like a giant komodo dragon, excluding the sickly green color. Its eyes were a horrid yellow with red pupils, and they roved around unnaturally. Rows of lethal looking spikes trailed down its back until they met up with the end of its tail, where they formed a bowling ball of hard material, larger than her father's office desk. "We're doomed."

Terra chuckled, smirking. Taking a step back, a bright light flashed between his hands, and his Keyblade appeared, making his arms drop a few inches. The creature's roving eyes stopped instantly, swerving until they locked onto the Keyblade. With a loud shriek that hurt her eardrums, the Heartless opened its mouth. Terra jumped in front of her as it spat out wads of fire, colliding and dissipating against his Keyblade. Taking that as a hint that she was in the way, Aqua moved back, watching as Terra blocked more fire, occasionally knocking some back at its caster, who shrieked and roared. She cringed as the loud sounds grated in her ears, making her head spin.

When she opened her eyes again, Terra was staring at her, horrorstruck. "Aqua!" he shouted, and then came racing towards her. She wasn't sure which shocked her more: him using her name, or the pure amount of terror she saw in his eyes. She barely had time to open her mouth before Terra smacked her side with the flat side of his Keyblade, sending her flying six feet before she skidded into the ground. Her shoulders hurt when she tried to sit up, and she instantly wished she could have stayed down. She looked up soon enough to watch the metal end of the Heartless' tail connect with Terra squarely, sending him flying into the school building. The windows and part of the wall shattered on impact, sending his Keyblade flying, where it landed at her feet. It vanished in a similar flash of light to the one that had summoned it. She started panicking when, after a long minute, Terra didn't appear from the hole.

The Heartless' eyes swerved to land on her, and she looked frantically between it and the broken wall before she covered her eyes and screamed. The Heartless screeched in reply, but the sound but cut off by a gurgling, choking noise. Peeking between her fingers, she saw that the Heartless was squirming, its front legs flailing at its neck. She could barely see a layer of ice forming on its skin.

"Aqua, are you alright?" a familiar voice asked, but it sounded different to her. From behind her, a large suit of armor appeared, holding a Keyblade. The armor was mostly a dark green, mixed in with black and silver along its arms, legs, chest, and helmet, forming an intricate pattern of jagged lines and layers. The black glass of the helmet was intersected by a silver metal X, making it look like the helmet itself had eyes. The Keyblade was mostly black, the shaft tapering out at the ends, where it joined with the teeth of the key, which formed a letter 'E'. The hilt-guard was a collection of white boxes held together with copper bars.

Her fright made it take longer for her to identify the voice. "Yes, Master Eraqus. I'm fine, but Terra is…"

He nodded. "Go find Terra. Help him if you can. I'll come get you when I'm finished here."

Aqua opened her mouth to object, but stopped. 'He's Master for a reason. He'll be fine.' She nodded and ran off to find the master's pupil. To her horror, Terra hadn't crashed through one wall, but three. He had lost enough momentum from the first three that the fourth wall, the outer wall of the classroom on the opposite of the school, had managed to stop him, albeit painfully. The wall was cracked slightly, but Terra's body had absorbed most of the impact. As she kneeled next to him among the rubble of broken walls and tangled desks, she assessed his injuries. It was very bad. Terra was incredibly pale, a lot of his blood pooling around him from a large cut on the back of his head, as well as from pieces of glass gouging into this skin. Some of the fragments of the broken windows had been large enough to pierce through parts of his limbs, but nothing critical had been hit. He was bleeding a lot.

"Terra, are you there? Can you hear me?" she asked quietly. Terra's eyes opened slowly, and only part way. His breathing became ragged. "Don't push yourself," she urged, wanting to put her hand on his chest to calm him down before deciding otherwise. "Try to hold still. I'll think of something." She reached for his arm, attempting to turn him over to remove some of the glass, until she realized that his limbs might be broken, and that her father had told her removing objects from bleeding wounds made them bleed more. Biting a fingernail and ignoring the protesting of her scraped shoulders, she sat down next to him to think. 'I don't have anything I can use to fix his arms. If I move him, it'll hurt a lot, if he doesn't… Focus, Aqua. You have to figure out something. I have to fix this. It's my fault he's hurt like this, anyway. I have to fix this. I have to fix this!' "I HAVE TO FIX THIS!" she shouted, loud enough that some of the glass from a broken window near her tilted and shattered on the ground.

Her hands felt funny and, when she looked down at them, they were sparkling, pink, blue, orange and purple flashes entwined around them. She stared at them, wondering what they were.

"Ma… gic…" Terra wheezed, and winced, pain sending a convulsion up his body, making more blood pool, "He… al…"

Aqua blinked, dumbfounded. "He… al…?" she repeated in a whisper. Instantly, the sparkles on her hands responded, glowing brightly. A large branch of unreal-looking white flowers appeared, spraying bright green light all over Terra's body. Within seconds, his smaller wounds closed up completely while the larger ones stopped bleeding. The pieces of glass embedded in his skin vanished, and the blood around him dried up. She heard sickening clicking as Terra's bones realigned themselves and healed. Color returned to his face, and he closed his eyes, his breathing evening out until she could tell he was sleeping.

"Was that… me?" she wondered aloud, feeling too drained of energy to do anything else. With that, she collapsed beside Terra, her head resting against his shoulder.


	4. Dreams

**Chapter 4 - Dreams**

* * *

Aqua's home world, Fifteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

When Aqua awoke, she felt like she had been sleeping for a long time. She could barely remember where she was or how she had gotten here, but she knew she was home, lying in her own bed. She tried to sit up, but her back and shoulders protested. Looking around, she saw her father sitting in a chair beside her bed, half asleep. "Father?" she croaked, startling herself when the voice didn't sound like her own.

Her father jerked awake. "Aqua, sweetie, you're alright," he sighed with relief. "I was so worried about you. You've been out light a light for three days."

She tried to sit up again, this time hindered by her father, who pushed her back down lightly. "I'm fine, Father. What…?" She was about to ask what had happened, but everything came back to her in a rush: the attack of the Heartless, Master Eraqus' arrival, and Terra's broken body.

"Master Eraqus brought you back here after you collapsed," her father explained, smoothing out the covers at her shoulders, "He said you needed time to rest, but this is ridiculous."

"Father, you should have seen it!" she exclaimed, sitting up, suddenly full of energy. "The Heartless was huge and it spat fire at us, and Master Eraqus has an amazing suit of armor! And I used magic! Actual magic! I used to help Terra…" She cut off suddenly. "Terra… Where's Terra? Is he alright?" She was talking much faster than she had intended.

Her father laughed. "You've recovered, all right." He paused, composing himself to look serious. "Terra's still very injured right now. He's going to take a lot longer to recover than you did. Right now, though, you need to…"

"Can I see him?" she asked.

"He's resting right now, and I really think you should…"

Ignoring him, Aqua jumped out of bed, wearing nothing but her nightgown, and raced from her room to Terra's. The door was closed, but not locked. Still, she stepped inside quietly, making sure to close the door as silently as she had opened it. Terra was lying in bed, unnaturally still. Aqua crept closer, worried that something might have happened to him, but she sighed with relief when she saw that he was breathing, despite how shallow it was. His head and arms were bandaged and there were a few cuts on his face and shoulders that were beginning to heal, forming dark scabs. Bandages were visible at the top of his ribcage, meaning that he probably had some fractured ribs there were healing. She took a seat next to his bed, starting at him worriedly until he opened his eyes.

He regarded her for a moment before he smiled slightly. "You're… okay…" he breathed, his voice thin and airy, "That's… good to know…"

"Don't talk too much. You're still healing," she lectured, shaking a finger at him.

He tried to laugh, but winced and breathed slowly for a moment to ride out the wave of pain. "I… owe you… now…"

"For what?"

"For… saving… my life…"

Her eyebrows scrunched. "You don't owe me anything. You've saved my life twice, so now I still owe you one." She paused. "Why did you risk your life, trying to save me? You got really hurt because of it."

He opened his mouth to reply, but it came out as a silent breath. His eye closed and it looked like he was concentrating. Finally, after a few minutes, she realized that he had fallen asleep again, his breath slow and shallow. She wanted to wake him up, to find out the answer to her question, but a hand on her shoulder made her stop.

"Let him rest," Master Eraqus whispered. "He'll need it if he's going to heal."

Nodding, she followed him out into the hallway. He looked tired, deep creases in his forehead and dark circles under his eyes. "You look like you should be resting, too," she commented.

He chuckled. "Just worried, that's all."

"About Terra?"

He sighed. "About a lot of things, but yes, Terra is one of them."

"Can I ask a question?" she mumbled, staring at her feet.

"Of course."

"Why…" she paused, looking for the right words, "Why did Terra put his life in danger for me? Isn't he important, since he has the power of the Keyblade and all that?"

Eraqus smiled. "Terra hates suffering of any kind. He doesn't want to see anyone in pain because of something he didn't do. He saved you because he knew that people would be in a lot of pain if something were to happen to you."

"But… doesn't he know that you'd be sad if something bad happened to him?"

"He does, but that's different. Wielding a Keyblade means you have to accept that you're putting your life on the line, and that others like you are doing the same. It means understanding that someone you've known all your life can be gone forever, and that you have to continue as though they never existed. Yes, Terra is someone I worry about on a regular basis, but I know, and he knows, that if something horrible were to happen and I ended up losing him, I'd continue to live without him."

Aqua stared at her feet, feeling her hands clench into fists. "That's… not right. It's not fair to them that they're forgotten so easily."

"It does sound unfair," Eraqus said, kneeling down to face her directly, "but it's something we agree on when we become Keyblade wielders. It's a decision we all make. We're fighters, Aqua. There will be fighting for a long time, and as long as there is fighting, there is loss. We agree that if we can end this fighting forever, the loss is something we have to live with. Everyone leaves life eventually, and we've decided to use our lives to make other people safe and happy. Even someone as young as Terra agrees. It's a dream worth giving your heart and soul to."

'It's… a dream worth all that?' she asked herself as Master Eraqus stood up. "Can I ask another question?"

"Of course," he smiled, despite the tired look on his face. "Ask anything."

She took a deep breath. "When… Terra was hurt, I made his injuries go away. He said it was magic. Was it really… real magic?"

"Yes, it was; very powerful magic, at that." He rubbed his temples. "Those were serious wounds to heal, and I'm not surprised that you've been out three days to recover. Magic isn't as rare as Keyblades, but mastery of magic usually takes a long time. You're a natural at it. Usually, we see magic as indicators for other things, but even without that, you have a special power."

"Will… will I be able to do that again?"

"Most likely. Magic isn't a once-in-a-lifetime ability. It says with you for your entire life. Awakening magic power is the hardest part, but you've already done that. Also, healing isn't the only thing you can do. Magic can be used to attack or defend as well. But enough of that for now. All of this is something you have plenty of time to learn, later, when I've not got so many things on my mind."

She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. Sleep well, Master Eraqus."

He nodded. "And you, Aqua. You should get some more rest, in the meantime."

He walked off to his room, shutting the door behind him. Aqua stared after him, absorbing everything he had said. 'There's a lot to learn,' she yawned, 'but later.' "Sleep well, Terra."

* * *

A week later, Terra's wounds had healed enough from him to get out of bed, though he was still in much need of sleep and sore all over. Master Eraqus forbid him from returning to school with Aqua, but he didn't look too disappointed about it. On the first day back, all of her classmates wanted a full retelling of what had happened, but she had to edit so much out at Master Eraqus' request that no one was satisfied. Rumors began to spread about aliens and mutants formed from toxic waste, which grated on her nerves. No one mentioned when had happened to Terra, meaning that no one knew about what she had done.

When she got home, Terra was lying on the lawn, staring up at the wispy clouds floating lazily through the sky. Smiling, she sat down next to him, staring at him until his eyes came to meet hers. They stared at each other for a minute before Terra stood up and walked to the door.

"Not going to say anything to me today?" she asked as he held the door open for her.

He paused for a moment, his brow furrowing in thought before he shrugged, shook his head, and walked off.

* * *

That night, when Aqua went to join her father in his office, he sat her down in one of the chairs and stood before her, leaning up against his desk. "I've heard that you want to learn magic."

"Yes," she smiled. She had talked about it earlier with Master Eraqus, and he had agreed to teach her as much as he could before they left. "I want to learn as much as I can. He said I can do so much with magic, and that I can help lots of people with it, so I want to do the best I can."

Her father sighed. "I understand how you feel, but are you sure this is what you want?"

Aqua looked at him, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"From what Master Eraqus has told me, magic isn't the only thing," he said, looking at her, something she couldn't place in his eyes, "There's a lot more that you can do, Aqua, but that might dangerous. It might take you far away from here for a long time…"

"I wouldn't do that," she interrupted, shaking her head vigorously, "I wouldn't leave you, no matter what happened."

He smiled sadly. "I knew you'd say that, but sometimes, things like that are beyond our control. I wanted to tell you, Aqua, that no matter what you do, I love you, and I'll always support you. I just wanted to make sure you were serious about your decision."

"Thanks, Father," she smiled, jumping up and hugging him tight. "I love you too."

* * *

The next day, after school, Master Eraqus began teaching her magic. The first couple of lessons were of him explaining why magic worked, and getting her to call upon the magic she had. It took a bit of practice to get the magic power to work, often failing and leaving her drained of energy, but after a few lessons, it worked. She was so delighted when the magic sparkles appeared on her hands that she lost control of it and passed out. After that, Eraqus had her learn meditation, to try to control her emotional outbursts. Terra helped with that, teaching her how to relax her mind and focus. Once she had completed that, she went back to magic lessons. Master Eraqus taught her some more healing and some defensive spells, which she practiced as he and Terra trained with their Keyblades. Occasionally, she would loose control of her spells while she was watching them, resulting in some injuries, but she got better at focusing while she worked.

After learning the defensive spells, she started learning offensive spells. Terra joined them sometimes, practicing his own, giving her pointers on ones he had already mastered. When he wasn't there, he vanished, but Aqua was too wrapped up in practice to wonder where. The offensive spells took longer to learn, but she had enough focus training that she could practice for hours before feeling tired.

A month and a half after her training had begun, Aqua was able to cast a variety of spells within seconds of each other, and there was nothing else Master Eraqus could teach her. Despite that, she practiced, trying to add more magic to spells to make them more powerful. When it worked, she would make mental notes on how to do it again. When it didn't, she'd end up incredibly exhausted. No matter how much time she poured into magic training, she never skipped school or shirked on her homework, which her father was proud of.

"Master Eraqus," she asked one day while he was supervising her practice, "you said that 'magic is an indicator for other things'. What did you mean?"

He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Magic isn't always an ability that comes by itself. Most of the time, magic is a beginning step for other things, other powers. Sometimes it leads to immense knowledge and understanding of the universe, as it did in the sage Master Yen Sid. Other times, it leads to the understanding of science and the laws of the worlds, as with Ansem the Wise. Those who learn magic, however, often have very powerful hearts, and powerful hearts are chosen to wield Keyblades."

She stared. "You mean… I might get a Keyblade too?"

"There's a possibility you might, but also that you might not. Not all hearts are chosen. Keyblades choose their wielders carefully based on a few factors, and even Masters aren't sure of what those factors are."

That night, Aqua went to sleep thinking 'I wonder what my Keyblade would look like…'


	5. Keyblade

**Chapter 5 - Keyblade**

* * *

Aqua's home world, Fifteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

When Aqua woke the next morning, it was the weekend, and she wanted to know more about Keyblades. Master Eraqus was the ideal person to ask, but she couldn't find him anywhere. She searched the house from top to bottom, asking anyone she met if they had seen him, but she came up empty handed after two hours. Finally, she decided to ask Terra. She found him lying on her front lawn, staring at his armored hand, the other arm tucked under his head. Cautiously, she sat down next to him. "Can I talk to you?" He glanced over at her for a moment, not moving, and then nodded slightly, dropping his arm to his side. She lay down beside him, staring up at the sky. "Have you seen Master Eraqus? I had something to ask him."

"Not here," he muttered, closing his eyes, "He's checking on things."

She turned her head to stare at him. "What things?" When he didn't answer, she nudged him, thinking he was asleep, but the corners of his eyelids crinkled. "Is it too important to tell me?" He nodded. "Can I ask you, then?" Another nod. "I was wondering if you could tell me about the Keyblades."

His eyes snapped open and he stared at her for a moment, suspicion in his eyes. The suspicion faded when he glanced around. "Not here."

With a quick though, she clambered to her feet. "I know where we can talk," she said. Grabbing his arm, she dragged him to his feet and pulled him along with her. He wrestled his arm from her grip and followed her. Aqua led him down to the beach, choosing the left path, and led him along. "Will this work?" she asked as they walked.

He looked around, judging. It was warm for a fall day, but they were the only ones in sight. He nodded. "What do you want to know?"

"I… didn't really have anything in particular that I wanted to ask…" she admitted sheepishly, staring to climb the first set of rocks. "I just wanted to know more than I do now, that's all."

The corners of his mouth turned up in a slight smile. "What do you know?"

"Keyblades are powerful weapons that can defeat Heartless," she listed, sitting down on a ledge of rock, "They choose who they want to wield them, and they come when that person wants them to. Each one is different from the rest. That's… about it."

Terra sat down next to her. "That's… not much."

She blushed. "I know that! That's why I'm asking!"

"Keyblades aren't just used to fight Heartless," he explained, standing up again, and Aqua followed, "Keyblades can be used for other things. They use a special kind of power to fight, which is why they can hurt Heartless. They can be used to fight others, too. That's only half of the Keyblade's power, though."

She paused, looking down as she judged distance for her next descent. "What do you mean? It can do more?"

"It's a Keyblade. I explained the 'blade' part," he said, shuffling through the sand ahead of her, "The Keyblade can be used to lock and unlock things."

"Like doors?"

"Not only doors, but other things, too."

"And what about the armor? I noticed for both you and Master Eraqus that your Keyblades and armor are similar."

Terra closed his eyes. "It's complicated. The armor protects us from all kinds of things, and makes us stronger. It… It's connected to the Keyblade, as though they share some kind of bond, but it's not something you can describe. The Keyblade is easier to use in the armor, simply."

"And when do you get the armor? And how do you store it like that?"

"The armor and the Keyblade come around the same time, but it's not always there. You have to find it first, not in a place, but inside yourself. It comes to you when you need it, and then it stays with you." He held up his armored arm. "I don't know why it stores like this, but it's something I learned from Master Eraqus. Every armor does this, so it's easy to call on without the Keyblade."

Aqua stared at his arm until he dropped it and continued walking. "And how do you call the Keyblade?"

"It's like the first time you call the armor, but all the time: you reach inside yourself and it's there."

"It sounds like you're avoiding the question," she scowled.

"I'm not," he chuckled. "That's just how it is. The first time calling it is hard, but once you practice, it'll come without having to work for it. You just think about it and it's there in your hands. It makes more sense than it sounds."

"Hmmm," she grumbled, still not satisfied with his answer. "Next question. Master Eraqus told me that Keyblades choose wielders for reasons, but they don't know what the reasons are. I understand that, but how do they Keyblades decide? I mean, how does someone end up with a Keyblade? Do they get a new Keyblade all to themselves, or do they get some else's Keyblade?"

Terra stared out at the ocean. "Those… are good questions."

"You don't know the answer?"

"No one does. Keyblades seem to know what they're doing, so no one bothers to ask. How Keyblades decide is something else entirely. I think how it works is… the Keyblade decides if you have the right qualities to wield it, and then it tests you. The tests are different, or so I've heard, but if you pass the test, you can call the Keyblade and wield it. As for the different kinds of Keyblades, I'm not sure about that either. Master Eraqus says he knows of people wielding Keyblades of people before them, but I've never actually seen it. One thing I do know, a person can wield more than one Keyblade."

"They can?" she asked, startled, "How does that work?"

"I'm not sure exactly, but it has something to do with the key chains on the Keyblades. Different key chains change the appearance of a Keyblade, but the Keyblade remains the same."

Aqua paused, thinking it over. "Like… putting a different picture in a picture frame? The frame stays the same, but it looks different because of the different picture."

"Sounds right to me," Terra sighed, sitting down on the ledge.

Aqua hadn't noticed that they had arrived at the stone platform where she had first met Terra. She sat down next to him. "It's surprising that you know so much more about this than I do, and we're the same age."

"We're not."

"What?" she blinked. "We aren't?"

"When did you turn ten?" He asked, eyes level with hers, looking like he already knew the answer.

"Earlier this year, in April," she answered, hesitant. "You?"

"November, last year," he replied, "My next one is in a few weeks."

She elbowed him, half-smiling and half-pouting. "And here I thought we were the same age. How come I never knew this before?"

"You never asked." He answered, shrugging, and then went rigid, his head turning quickly towards the beach, opposite the way they had come. Without another word, he stood up and summoned his Keyblade, his grip tighter than usual.

Aqua stood up next to him, looking in the same direction over his shoulder. "What is it?" she whispered, "Heartless?"

Terra didn't reply, gripping his Keyblade tighter. Suddenly, five black puddles appeared around them, the edges hinging on silver. That close to him, Aqua felt a shiver run up Terra's spine and she felt her palms get sweaty. The puddles ripped from the center and began rising, the middles forming pillars that shaped into large black shapes, at least a foot taller than they were. The Heartless looked like the first ones she had met, but a lot bigger and more menacing, their hands thick claws and their eyes radiating hunger. They were surrounded.

"Not a problem, right?" she asked, her voice shaking. "They're not that big…"

Terra chuckled dryly. "Neoshadows don't need to be big to be dangerous. Aqua, I can't fight them and protect you at the same time."

"I can handle it," she said bravely, raising her arms in a defensive position, he hands sparkling with magic. "I can handle this."

"That's what I'm afraid of…"

Hefting his Keyblade higher, Terra charged, leaving Aqua in the middle of the circle. Two Neoshadows jumped over her to surround him, joining the one he was already facing. They began to attack in a rough pattern, taking advantage of his slow swing and even slower recovery to push him to the edges of the circle, where another would be waiting to repeat the process, never allowing him a chance to attack.

Meanwhile, the last two circled Aqua, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. She quickly raised defensive magic around herself, figuring the Heartless didn't know any magic, and concentrated on trying to cast attack magic properly. Offensive magic took more effort than defensive did, and her nervousness was throwing her concentration off. She let loose some fire magic, but her aim was off and the Neoshadow she was aiming for dodged it easily. The other one lunged at her, but she cast a reflect spell, sending it bouncing along the ledge. The first attacked with the opportunity, but she quickly spun around and froze it, jumping out of the way as the icicle hit the stone and shattered. To her horror, it stood up again, but it limped, having taken some damage. The two teamed up on her, advancing to try to push her to the ledge, where the steep drop would kill her.

Then, an idea came to her, and she let them continue, moving until she was as close to the edge as she could get without falling off. The second, uninjured one lunged for her, but she jumped, casting a float spell simultaneously, causing the Heartless to overstep and fall over the edge. She winced at the resounding splat, but when she felt something grab her leg, she looked down. The other Neoshadow had her by the leg, almost up to her knee, its claws digging into her skin. She sent magic down to heal her leg, trying to shake it off at the same time, but when she tried, it held on tighter and she felt her magic being drawn out of her body. Even more frightening was that the Heartless was _healing itself_. Feeling her magic power draining, her float spell ended and she crashed into the surface of the ledge. The Neoshadow, still holding her leg, missed the ledge altogether and began to fall, trying to drag her with it.

Digging her fingernails into the rock face without any luck, she swung her leg, trying to dislodge the Heartless, but only proceeded to push more of her body to the impending drop. Taking a risk, she continued, pumping as much magic power as she could manage into her hands. When she began to tilt off the ledge, she let loose the largest fire attack she'd ever cast, and grabbed onto the ledge with the last of her strength. The Neoshadow caught fire, letting her go to flail at the flames, and dropped to the ground below. It disintegrated before it splattered. Hauling herself back onto the ledge, Aqua sat down, gasping and shaking, her clothes soaked through with sweat, her physical and magical reserves almost bone dry.

Terra wasn't faring as well. The three Neoshadows had begun pummeling him from all sides, tired of playing with him. He managed to block two of every three attack, but the third would clip him in the arms or back as he tried to dodge, too tired and ill prepared to block it. His Keyblade was too heavy for him to wield one-handed, which he would have needed to do if he was to block all three attacks. Suddenly, he thought of a plan, and put it into action. Instead of blocking the first attack, he ducked under it. From there, he swung his Keyblade across the stone surface to build momentum, ignoring the screeching it produced, and used that extra energy to slash a Neoshadow in half up the middle. It vanished, but not before its companions dug their claws deep into his back.

He swung his Keyblade around to try to hit them, but they jumped back, beginning to circle. Not wanting to give them the chance, he charged at one, swinging his Keyblade in the same maneuver, but this one dodged, expecting it. Halfway through the swing, Terra felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle, meaning the other one was going to attack him from behind, so he turned around mid-swing to hit it. He'd miscalculated: his swing missed it by an inch and it crashed into him, sending him, with it on top, sliding along the rock until he reached the edge. His head and shoulders hung dangerously over the edge. His Keyblade was the only thing keeping the Neoshadow off him, though it swiped and slashed at him, just out of reach.

Bracing his Keyblade with his arm, he freed one hand and cast an ice spell. The ice left his hand in a giant icicle, forming upwards from his palm almost instantly, piercing right through. The Neoshadow and the icicle both vanished as Terra braced himself against his Keyblade, feeling the intense burn of his injuries. At that moment, he realized that one Neoshadow was unaccounted for. Looking up, he saw it, headed straight for Aqua.

"Aqua!" he shouted, loud enough that her eyes snapped open, "Look out!"

Aqua saw the Neoshadow lunge at her, but she saw it too late. She held up her arm in an instinctive reaction and screamed. All at once, three things happened. There was a brilliant flash of light, the Neoshadow disappeared, and Aqua's arm dropped painfully to the ground, weighted down by something. When she looked at what it was, she gasped. In her hand was a Keyblade. It was a dark blue, the cross-guard formed from the metal spreading around a hole in the base of the shaft. The hilt-guard was silver; two curved metal prongs reaching from the base of the black grip to the cross-guard, but not attached to it. The shaft ended in another hole in the metal before it stretched out into the teeth of the key, which resembled a rotated square with one side chopped out, a bit of metal sticking out at the top and the intact side. Inside the teeth was a section of silver metal, imbedded in such a way that it looked like it continued out the other side, coated in more of the dark metal. The key chain hanging from it was a large water drop.

Terra, seeing her Keyblade, stood up and walked over towards her, but only got half way before, weighted down by exhaustion, his injuries, and his Keyblade, dropped to the ground. "Let's… keep this to ourselves…" he muttered before he closed his eyes and passed out.

"That…" Aqua muttered happily, looking up at the sun directly above her, "sounds like a good idea…" Then she passed out as well.


	6. Incidents

**Chapter 6 - Incidents**

* * *

Aqua's home world, Fifteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

They had kept the incident with the Neoshadows to themselves, as no one asked questions when they returned, their clothes torn and them tired. In the morning, Aqua wished she didn't need to wake up, but it was a school day, so she forced herself out of bed and proceeded with her usual routine. As usual, Terra was in the kitchen, chugging down a carton of orange juice at an astonishing rate, but he ignored her entrance. When she had opened her mouth to wish him a good morning, he had walked past her as through she wasn't there. 'Is he… angry? With me? Did I do something wrong?' She tried not to worry about it, but it kept bothering her all day. In class, she answered every question she was asked wrong, even though her homework was right, and she fell flat on her face three times in Gym, being hit in the head with the volleyball at least five times. By the time the final bell rang, she wished she had stayed home. She walked home, trying to ignore people that stared at her each time she veered off the sidewalk.

Unlike usual, Terra wasn't out on the front lawn, waiting for her. Aqua changed, tried to do her homework and failed, and then decided to look for him. He was nowhere in the house or anywhere on the property, and she was just about to quit when he's father's assistant said he'd seen the apprentice headed towards the beach, but hadn't seen him return. Thanking him, Aqua headed down to there to continue her search.

She found him in a patch of sand among the rocks, which she recognized as her usual snack spot during her walks. He stood silently, eyes closed, facing towards the ocean. Holding his hands out in front of him, he summoned his Keyblade, using both arms to hold it parallel to the ground. Slowly, he removed one hand, the muscles in his other arm fighting to keep the heavy Keyblade straight. Then, with one sharp movement, he let the tip drop and strained his muscles to fight the weight. He managed to bring the Keyblade up in a swift strike, but the momentum brought it back over her shoulder, spinning him around. His feet slid in the sand and he fell flat on his back, eyes still closed, his Keyblade disappearing from his hands. He lay still for a long time, but his fingers were half buried in the sand, the corners of his eyes a mess of wrinkles.

Aqua walked quietly along the rocks to the edge of the sand. "Looks like you're not having much luck with that," she joked. Terra's eyes snapped open, turning to stare at her for a brief second before he stood up and walked part her, beginning to climb in the direction of her house. She followed him closely. "If I made fun of you, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." He didn't answer her. "Are you mad at me?" He paused, looking at her with an expression she interpreted as 'What do you think?', and continued, walking faster in an attempt to leave her behind. "What did I do to make you so mad at me?"

Terra stopped dead in his tracks. "You got a Keyblade. That's what."

"I…" she blinked, sorting out everything. "You're mad at me because I got a Keyblade. That's why? Why are you mad? I though you'd be happy. Now I can fight Heartless too! Now you don't have to worry about protecting me! So why are you so mad at me!?" She was practically screaming at that point, but Terra's expression made her calm down.

He was glaring at her, the hatred in his eyes almost palpable. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper, but the tone of pure loathing in it made her quake. "You think… wielding a Keyblade is a good thing?"

"I-isn't it?" she asked, her voice cracking in fear.

She had expected Terra to start yelling, but instead, he started laughing, and she started wished he had yelled. His laugh hit her deep, shaking her to her very core. He'd completely lost control of himself, clutching his stomach as he laughed like a maniac. Watching him, she suddenly felt afraid, not only of him, but of the Keyblade, of her world, and of every world beyond it. 'Is this… Is this what the world does to you? Is this what the Keyblade does? Or… maybe… this is why Terra can't open up to people, why he distrusts them… What… what's happened to him to make him like this…?'

Finally, Terra's laughter descended back into normalcy and he was able to talk, wiping tears from his eyes. "You think… you think the Keyblade is a good thing…" he gasped, trying to calm down, but he burst into laughter again, the normal kind, much to Aqua's relief. "That's… the craziest thing I've ever… heard!"

"Why's that so funny!?" she snapped. "It's what I think!"

His laughter slowed to a stop. "Being a Keyblade wielder isn't as much of an honor as you think it is. In fact, it's the biggest curse in the universe. You're hunted down by Heartless and who-knows-what else for as long as you wield one. No one around you is safe, not even others who wield the Keyblade. No one cares of you die and no one misses you when you're gone, so what's so great about!?" When he finished, his face red and he was breathing hard from the screaming. Exhausted, he sat down and lay back, closing his eyes.

Silently, Aqua came and sat down beside him, staring out at the ocean. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her hands folded together on her knees.

"Don't apologize," he sighed, opening his eyes slightly. "It was silly of me to get angry over something I can't control. I just… I thought I had friend, someone who remember me when I'm gone, but… the whole idea's stupid, isn't it?"

"I'll always remember you, Terra. You're a very important friend to me, so I'll never forget you, ever. Just… you don't forget me, either."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

They sat together for a while, listening to the waves lap against the shore. Finally, Aqua opened her mouth. "It's heavy, isn't it?"

Terra sat up. "What's heavy?"

"The Keyblade. Mine is too heavy to hold," she grinned sheepishly. "I guess I'm not strong enough."

"You think yours is heavy," he scoffed, "Wait until you see mine."

She tilted her head, confused. "But I've seen yours. It looks heavy, but it's probably not that much heavier than mine."

"That's not my Keyblade," he replied, standing up.

"What do you mean?"

"The Keyblade I use isn't actually my real Keyblade. It's a substitute, and it's much smaller than my real one." He summoned his Keyblade, burying the tip into the sand, and grabbed they key chain, yanking it off. Instantly, his Keyblade transformed in a flash of light, and Aqua gasped. Terra's real Keyblade was enormous, standing at least two inches taller than he did. The shaft of the Keyblade was golden, extending past the cross-guard and into the grip. On either side, the shaft was surrounded by brown metal, bordered in more gold, held to the cross-guard by a golden bolt on either side. It ended in a slab of dark brown metal, wrapped around the shaft, extending three times on either side of it to form the teeth. The first extension was attached to the shaft in the rough shape of a bowl, the second in the shape of a nail, and the third in the shape of a hammer, the extension curving on one side and edged sharply on the other. The hilt-guard was a similar shape and color to his other Keyblade, but it was lighter, more green present than blue. The key chain was a cone shaped chunk of rock. "This is my Keyblade," he said, steadying it. "_Earth Shaker_."

She continued to stare. "Earth Shaker…?"

"That's its name. Every Keyblade has a name, but the name changes when the key chain changes," he reached up and stuck the other key chain back on, and the Keyblade reverted to its usual, wieldable form. "This one is called _Terra Firma_. Master Eraqus helped me form it when he saw I couldn't wield my other one."

"It has the same name as you. Terra," she giggled.

Terra blushed, not meeting her face. "That's… that's because _Terra_ means Earth."

"Is that why…" she asked, standing up, "you've got earth as its key chain?" She pointed at the vial of dirt hanging from the Keyblade.

"It's from my home world," he replied, staring at the ground, a deep sadness in his eyes. He shook his head, recovering with a slight smile. "If you find your Keyblade too heavy, it'll be impossible to swing. I could barely swing mine, and I had to drag it across the ground to build enough energy to swing it. Even the substitute is heavy, but I'm practicing. If you want, I can help you practice wielding it."

Aqua snapped out of her trance, realizing what he was talking about, and nodded. "I'd love that. Thanks so much, Terra."

"No problem."

* * *

When they arrived back at the house, Aqua was surprised to see Master Eraqus standing outside the door. He looked tired and pensive, which seemed unusual for him. When they walked through the gate, he opened his eyes and walked briskly over to them. "You're here. Good." He spoke almost too quickly for her to keep up, until she realized his comments weren't direct at her.

"Something happen, Master?" Terra asked, his brow furrowing, speaking in the same hurried tone.

Eraqus nodded. "Problems. Serious ones. No time to explain. I'm leaving you in charge here, Terra."

"M-master…" Terra stuttered, blanching, "Are you sure about that? I'm not sure I…"

"No time to argue. You can handle this. I'll be back…" the master began, but he trailed off and strode past them without another word.

Aqua stared after him, dumbfounded. "Well, that was interesting."

Terra rubbed his forehead. "Interesting isn't the right word," he groaned. "He should never have left me in charge."

"Why's that?"

"I have a horrible track record."

"What does that mean?" she asked, not liking his tone.

"When ever he leaves me in charge of anything," he explained, "something usually ends up going very wrong, and I end up regretting it painfully later."

Aqua shivered. "I wish you hadn't told me that."

"You were the one who asked."

When they went inside, all of the household staff were running around, some carrying binders or stacks of paper, others picking up messes left in their wake. Aqua was startled, wondering what could get everyone in such a panic. She spotted her father's secretary pacing around, talking hurriedly into his cell phone, and she ran over, dragging Terra with her. "What's going on?"

The secretary looked down at her with a sigh of relief. "There's been a situation on the other side of the continent, and we're trying to sort out all of the information," he explained, covering the speaker of his phone while he talked. "There have been a lot of reports from various sources, so we're trying to figure out which ones are accurate and which we can write off as panic. Excuse me." He nodded a quick goodbye and walked away, talking into his phone again.

"I wonder what kind of situation could be this bad…" she wondered, and Terra shrugged.

"Aqua!" her father's voice came from the top of the stairs, and he raced down to embrace her tightly. "Are you alright?"

She smiled. "You're hugging me too tight to breathe," she gasped.

Laughing sheepishly, he let her go. "Sorry. I'm at wit's end here, what with all these reports coming in from across the continent. From what I've read, no single one is entirely reliable."

"What's going on, Father? What happened?" she asked, looking at everyone racing around them.

He shook his head. "I'm not sure. I can't get an accurate description of what happened. From what I understand, one of the cities on the east coast got attacked, but…"

"Heartless?" Terra asked, all the seriousness returned to his face.

"Maybe, but I can't be sure. From the reports, all the people have disappeared. At first, it was a few disappearances, but over the past couple days it has been getting out of hand until, just a few hours ago, we lost contact with them altogether. Some of the reports include Heartless sightings, but some have giant hairy beasts kidnapping children, and a few others describe a man with metal arms. I'm not sure what to think anymore…" he sighed, running a hand through his sweaty hair. "Well, I have to get back to work. You look like you want to help, but I think we've got more than enough hands," he grumbled, watching someone crash into someone else, "Just try and give us space, okay?" With that, he dashed back up the stairs and vanished around a corner.

Aqua went back outside with Terra and they sat down on the lawn, staring up at the sky. "Do you really think it's Heartless?" she asked after a while.

"Yes," he muttered blankly, "People disappearing and Heartless appearing, right around the same time? The coincidence is too great."

Aqua giggled. "But… hairy Heartless?"

"I don't think that's really what they saw," he chuckled, and they both started laughing, bouncing ridiculous ideas for Heartless back and forth. By the time the crisis had died down and the staff was sent to look for them, they were both fast asleep.


	7. Surprises

**Chapter 7 - Surprises**

* * *

Aqua's home world, Fifteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

The day after Master Eraqus left, Aqua went out to the beach with Terra to begin her Keyblade training. It was harder than she had expected. At first, she wasn't able to summon it, which vexed her to no end, but Terra remained patient, instructing her through the process repeatedly until she finally got it. After that, she practiced and practiced until she could summon it effortlessly and instantly. Once she had the hand of that, he advised her on different ways to wield it, letting her find the one that was most comfortable for her. It took a little work to find one, as she kept complaining about various aspects of each until he decided that she should try her own.

The hardest part, actually wielding it, came next. As she had expected, it was too heavy for her to swing, but Terra told her how he used his, and it helped immensely. Instead of swinging the Keyblade, she would hold it and loosen her grip, using that momentum to swing it up. This, however, meant that all her attacks would be underhanded. She quickly got the hang of it, and soon she was practicing with Terra, her underhand strikes meeting his overhand ones. Occasionally one of them would put too much strength into the attack and knock the other over, which is when they would take a break. Usually, Terra was the one knocking her over but, after a lot week of practice, she managed to catch one of his weaker swings with a powerful strike of her own. He had fallen over so hard that she was worried she had hurt him, but they had shared a laugh and he'd congratulated her.

"That was the best present I could have gotten," he commented as they headed back to her home. "Getting upset by my own student."

She laughed and elbowed him before she realized what he meant. "Today was your birthday? Why didn't you tell me? We could have skipped training and celebrated!"

He shook his head. "Right now, this is more important. It marks something special. You may not have noticed it, but you're growing. Maybe not taller," he added with a smirk, "but Master Eraqus said that the change from having a Keyblade to wielding a Keyblade is a growth more important than age, and that the highest honor is seeing someone make that change. So, it's enough for me. I'm honored to have been defeated by you today," he bowed, making her blush.

They continued their training for another week after that, so that within a month, Aqua had learned to wield her Keyblade with a decent level of efficiency. They continued to go to the beach after that, sometimes to train, and other times to talk. Suddenly, one day during one of their training sessions, Terra went rigid, Aqua's Keyblade barely avoiding hitting him in the head. She opened her mouth to complain, but when she saw his expression, she thought otherwise. Instead, she got herself in her fighting stance, Keyblade at the ready.

"Heartless?" she asked, watching he placed her between him and the ocean.

His eyebrows knitted together. "I'm not sure. Yes and no. It's Heartless, but there's something else. I can't figure out what it is…" His eyes widened and he backed up, gritting his teeth. "They're here."

As he finished, black puddles appeared around them and Neoshadows rose out of them surrounding them. Aqua gulped as she calculated their odds. It was two again ten, and they were outnumbered. "What do we do?" she asked, panic rising in her voice.

"We stay calm," he snapped, though the panic was evident in his voice as well, "We won't get anywhere panicking."

"Of course you won't," came the reply, but Aqua hadn't even opened her mouth, not to mention that the voice was male. They both looked up the shore, past the Neoshadows to the speaker. He was a tall man in his mid-twenties, greasy black hair slicked back off on side of his face, the other half of his head completely bald, a mass of pink scars. One of his eyes was black and the other was grey, a long, thick scar passing over it, cutting through his mouth. He was dressed in red, a long red piece of fabric wrapped around him onto top of his other clothes. His most distinguishing feature, however, was his arms. There were both metal, but his fingers moved as though they were real. "Panic gets innocent people killed, making it a hindrance for Keyblade wielders."

Aqua stared at him over Terra's shoulder. "Who's ugly?"

"Don't provoke him," he hissed back under his breath before turning back to the man. "Who are you?"

The man smiled, the scar across his mouth going white. "I think the more important question here is who you are."

Terra glared. "I asked you a question, and I want an answer. Who are you?"

"Terra, you said we shouldn't provoke him!" Aqua gasped, resisting the urge to elbow him in the back.

"I was talking about you," he replied. "I'm another matter."

The man walked towards them, stopping just outside the ring of Heartless. "I am Atrileng and, other than that, who I am is of no other concern to you. Now, tell me, where is Eraqus?"

"He's not here," Terra answered flatly. "Why are you looking for him?"

"Surely he must be here. He wouldn't just leave his apprentices alone to face Heartless," Atrileng scoffed. "If he'd stoop to that level, it proves that I held him in higher regard than he deserved."

Terra's grip on his Keyblade tightened. "Don't insult my Master in front of me!" he shouted, shifting his stance to charge, but Aqua gripped his shoulder.

"Don't," she whispered. "You're the one controlling the Heartless, aren't you?" she asked, "You're the one who attack that city on the east coast, aren't you?"

He smiled again, clapping his metal hands together in a resounding clang. "Very good. Yes, I am the one controlling the Heartless. They obey my every command. They're my only means of getting my revenge."

"On Master Eraqus? What did he do to you to make you want revenge?" she asked.

"Are you blind?" Atrileng asked, his voice rising, "Can't you see? _This_ is what he did to me," he growled, gesturing at himself. "And now I'll get my revenge on him… through you. I've been observing you for a while now, and I see how he treasures you as his students. I'll take that all away from him, and then I'll let him feel just what I've felt for the past seven years."

Terra was on the verge of snapping. "Master Eraqus would never do something like that to anyone!" he yelled. "You're insane!"  
Atrileng chuckled darkly. "Are you sure about that? You think so highly about your dear Master, but you know nothing about him. I was once his friend, a Keyblade wielder like you. I fought alongside him many times, and when I needed his help, he left me to die. I lost my arms because of him, and now the Keyblade is forever lost to me! It's his fault I'm in this mess, and that justifies my revenge!"

Aqua was taken aback. 'Master Eraqus… didn't help him…? But… why?'

"And now, Keyblade _apprentices_," he smiled, snarling the last word, "I bid you farewell. I have some important business to attend to, and you have these Heartless to deal with. I have a pleasant surprise in store of you. That is… if you survive."

As he turned around a walked off, the Neoshadows lunged, trying to pile themselves on top of them. Aqua followed Terra's lead, dodging under them as she turned in the sand and brought her Keyblade up, taking out a Heartless. With that action, it was two against eight, the Heartless now surrounded. They didn't take this action lightly, splitting up into two groups to alleviate the challenge.

The four closest to Aqua lunged at her one after another in quick succession, aiming for her weak spots as she tried to block all their attacks. It drove her backwards into the surf, the waves lapping against her ankles not helping her horrible balance. The Heartless then split up further, two circling around her left while the others spaced themselves out to her right. Cringing, she backed up farther into the water, submerged almost up to her knees. She kept her Keyblade ready, waiting for an attack, but the Neoshadows were keeping a fair amount of distance from her. Then she noticed why; they were staying out of the path of the water. 'They… don't like water?' she wondered, 'Or maybe they don't like slat water…'

Formulating a plan, she ran in a diagonal away from where Terra was, leading her group of Heartless a bit farther down the beach. As one scrambled towards her, she spun around, swinging her Keyblade as she moved, knocking it into the water. There was a screech and a loud hissing noise followed by a loud pop, like an air-filled plastic water bottle in a campfire, as the Heartless dissipated. She didn't stop to make sure it was gone; the other two were close on her tail, just out of range of her Keyblade. Anticipating this, she slowed down before her next swing, catching the closest Neoshadow to be hit and explode in the water as well.

As it vanished, Aqua turned to start running again, but the last Neoshadow jumped her from behind, pinning her on her side with her Keyblade under its feet. Quickly, she rolled onto her front, submerging her side and the Heartless in the surf. It quaked, its claws digging into her skin before it splattered into dust, the rush of air blowing its foul smell into her lungs. Coughing, she healed her arm and ran back to join Terra.

Terra faced his group of Heartless, backing away from the ocean as they advanced on him. Meeting eyes, one of the Neoshadows charged at him, another close behind it, and Terra charged at them. He stabbed her Keyblade forward like a lance, the end striking the first Heartless in the chest. The blade passed through as it dissolved, lodging itself in the sand, which he used as a lever to flip himself over all three remaining Heartless. When he landed, the Keyblade returned to his hand in a flash of light just in time from him to block another attack.

The Heartless attacking him pushed him onto his back, bearing all its weight and fury down on him. He struggled with it, pushing it as far back as it could manage with his Keyblade. The other two circled around to his sides, before they lunged at him from both directions. In a burst of strength, he used his knee as leverage to throw the Heartless over his head, along with his Keyblade, flipping himself off his back and onto his knees in the process. The two charging Heartless missed, slamming into each other, and Terra fired off the biggest fire spell he could manage, blasting them apart.

Calling his Keyblade back to his hand, he used it to pull himself to his feet, feeling a little sore after being tackled. As he did, though, the hair on the back of his neck stood up and he turned on his heels, swinging his Keyblade up with one arm to slice through the last Neoshadow as it tried to jump him from behind. His feet slid out from under him and he hit the sand on his backside, blinking in surprise.

Aqua ran over, panting. "You alright?"

"Yeah," he nodded, lifting up his Keyblade one-handed. "Better than alright."

She smiled, but her smile faded. "How are we going to catch up to him? He's got such a big head start."

Terra stood up. "We can catch up, but I'm gonna have to break a few rules." With that, he tapped his shoulder, his armor extending and forming in a flash of white light. Propping his Keyblade in the sand, he removed the key chain and grabbed _Earth Shaker_'s grip. Instantly, the Keyblade began to shift, collapsing and reforming as his armor did. Within a minute, it had reformed entirely, leaving Aqua in a state of shock. "How else do you think we move between worlds?" he joked, his voice reverberating in his armor. His Keyblade had transformed into what looked like a cross between a motorcycle and a hovercraft. The hilt-guard had become the base, propping up the back while enclosing the front on either side. The front of the vehicle was capped by a copper cone sticking out of the golden brown body. A handle protruded from each side of the body for steering. At the back, the body split into a series of metal beams. The first set pointed down towards the base, an indent in each one. The other two protruded backwards, providing aerodynamic support and protection for the large, dark brown engine. Without hesitation, Terra climbed on, setting his feet into the indents in the lower beams, and motioned for her to get on. She climbed cautiously on the back, uncomfortable with having to lean up against Terra's cold metal armor, but didn't voice her discomfort. Once she was settled, Terra shifted forward on the controls and they started moving, shooting forward faster than she would have imagined possible.

"What is this thing?" she screamed, half-afraid and half-excited.

"Keyblade Rider," he shouted over his shoulder, "I'll teach you later."

In less than five minutes, they were back at Aqua's house, and she instantly knew something was wrong. The front door was wide open and the lights were on. She jumped off the Rider without waiting for it to stop and raced towards the house. Terra followed her after he had dealt with his Keyblade and armor. Before she reached the door, Aqua's senses were assaulted by the smell of blood, and she almost gagged and turned to run, but Terra held her by the shoulders and led her forward.

Inside, bodies littered the floor; the carpets stained all over with blood. She stared on in horror, quivering against Terra's side as she scanned the bodies, wishing that she couldn't recognize the faces. Finally, she noticed one body that stood out from the rest and screamed, running to it. "Father!" Her father lay slumped against the bottom steps of the stairs, limp and lifeless. Aqua tried shaking him, hoping he would wake up, hoping that she would wake up, but nothing worked. She screamed again and started crying, sobbing uncontrollably against his chest.

"Aqua, stop it," Terra snapped, his voice cold. "You're acting like a child."

She glared at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "My father is gone! He's never coming back! I've lost him forever! What else am I supposed to do!?" she screamed, her shoulders heaving with silent sobs. "What am I supposed to do now…?"

"Stop crying and move on," he replied. "Crying gains you nothing. It can't bring people back, and it only brings more pain. What you can do is get up and make sure this never happens again."

"How can you say something like that!? You're always talking like you're so strong and so smart, but you have no idea what this feels like! You have no idea how this hurts…"

He shook his head. "I know this, all too well. I know how much this hurts, Aqua, but I don't want to see this do to you what it did to me. I don't want to see it scar you like it did me. I don't want to hurt you… so I'll tell you," he said in a whisper, sitting down on the step next to her, burying his face in his hands. Then he began to tell his story, and it was so detailed that she felt like she was there with him, living his pain on those fateful days…


	8. Terra

**Chapter 8 - Terra**

* * *

Terra's home world, Eighteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

Terra's home world was, of all the places he had been, the most beautiful he'd ever seen, and not because it was where he had been born. His world was one full of forests as far as the eye could see, rolling hills and flat fields, and long rivers and streams. Almost everyone was employed in agriculture, meaning that there was always plenty of food and plenty of people with raw hands. Winter was always a relatively short month, with the snow falling for a week or two at the beginning of January and melting before the middle of February. Terra was an only child, living with his mother and father. They gave him free reign over how he spent his days, and he used them exploring, memorizing the layout of the land.

Eventually, he had explored enough of the world that his curiosity got the better of him. He began exploring the one place that no one his age dared enter, and for good reason. It was the scariest forest in the area, and rumor had it that anyone who entered it never came back. Wanting to test that theory out, he ventured inside. The forest had once been part of a larger forest, but the need for agricultural space had facilitated the need to clear out sections.

As he ventured farther into the forest, he heard something, a low growling, and knew at once why he'd been warned not to come in. There were wolves in the forest, hungry ones, and he'd volunteered to become their next meal. He'd been scared, of course, but he didn't show it. Instead, he'd been prepared to fight. When the wolves had come into sight, they outnumbered him, surrounding him. One of them lunged at him, and he closed his eyes, but the wolf yelped and backed away. It was the first time Terra had summoned his Keyblade, _Earth Shaker_. The wolves, as if they knew what it was, backed away slowly before they turned to leave.

When Terra went home, he explained to his parents what had happened, even though he knew they would be mad at him, and showed them the Keyblade. Their reactions were not as he'd expected. His mother had broken out in tears at the sight of it, and his father had beaten him. For a week afterwards, he had lived outside, refusing to return home until his mother came and begged him to. Even then, his life was never the same. His father refused to acknowledge his existence, and he'd catch his mother crying in the middle of jobs.

He hadn't understood what the Keyblade meant to them, but he hated it fiercely. All his attempts to rid himself of it had failed, and every time he tried summoning it, hoping it would have left, it came back. There were times when he hated himself for bringing it into his life, but there was nothing he could do. He never told anyone about.

Not long after that, he'd returned home to find his house empty, which had seemed odd. He'd searched from top to bottom and had found no one, until he reached the kitchen. There, seated on the floor, had been two Heartless. When he entered, they had looked at him and, at the sight of their empty yellow eyes, he was overcome with fear and ran. Allover town, all the people had vanished and Heartless hid around every corner. He searched everywhere, but he was completely alone.

When he stopped to rest, some Heartless had snuck up behind him, three or four of them. He'd felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and when he'd turned around and seen the Heartless, his Keyblade had appeared in his hand against his will. The Heartless had approached him and, unable to think of another way to escape, had attacked the Heartless with his Keyblade, destroying them.

After that incident, he found a hiding place and hid there, only leaving to collect necessary supplies. Each time he ventured out, he brought his Keyblade with him, taking out any Heartless that stood in his way. He lived like that for seven months, not realizing that he had changed. He had become introverted, silent and stubborn, realizing that no one would come help him and that he could trust no one but himself.

One day, he had seen someone in the town, someone who didn't look like a Heartless. Despite that, he had launched an attack and was easily defeated, as the man could also wield a Keyblade, but with ease. This person, Master Eraqus, realized that he wasn't facing a Heartless and helped Terra, trying to understand what had happened. Terra had told him the whole story and, when he had finished, Eraqus had congratulated him on keeping himself safe so well. He had also help create a substitute Keyblade for him, since his was far too unwieldy. However, it was from Eraqus that Terra learned the horrible truth.

Heartless were formed from the hearts of people. The Heartless he had destroyed were once people that knew and cared for him. He had mercilessly killed them.

The truth of what he had done hurt more than any physical wound, and he couldn't bear it. He had broken down, unable to breathe, unable to cry, and unable to hold himself up under the weight of his actions.

It was in the aftermath of that Terra had chosen to become a Keyblade wielder; to spare others from the pain he had felt, and to hide his own pain.

* * *

Aqua's home world, Fifteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

As Terra finished, his voice cracking on the last few words, Aqua felt fresh tears rolling down her face and she realized that she wasn't crying for only herself. She put her arms around Terra's shoulders and hugged him, and he broke down sobbing, collapsing under the weight of his own pain. There they sat, comforting each other, Aqua crying for the both of them.

* * *

Next thing Aqua realized, she was lying on her front lawn, curled up in a ball. Her face felt puffy and her eyes were dry. Sitting up, she noticed she was alone and looked around frantically for Terra. She found him standing outside the gate, leaning up against the wall. His face was a mask, void of emotion, but when she tapped his shoulder lightly, he smiled.

"Morning. Sleep well?" he asked, handing her an unopened bottle of water.

She gulped down the entire bottle in one go and gasped, wiping her mouth. "How long was I… you know… sleeping?"

"About twelve hours," he muttered, yawning. "I got tired of waiting for you to get up, so I took care of some things while you were asleep."

"T-twelve hours!?" she blanched, "How are we gonna find that greasy guy now?"

He chuckled dryly. "It seems he was expecting this." He handed her a note. "I found it taped to the wall after you fell asleep."

Taking the note with shaking hands, she opened it and read:

_To the dear Keyblade apprentices,_

_I'm glad to see you survived the Heartless. My revenge would not be as sweet if you had died so easily. I hope you've enjoyed the surprise I've left you, as I went to a great deal of trouble to prepare it so perfectly. I propose a challenge: a duel to the death, if you will. There's no need to worry; I'll leave your bodies in a place where Eraqus will be sure to find you. I await your attendance with great deal of impatience. I believe the beach will be a fitting enough setting for our duel._

_Cordially,_

_Atrileng_

Furious, she crumpled the note and tossed it to the ground, stamping it once under her foot. "That stuck-up jerk! This is all his fault!"

"Methinks I smell a trap," Terra muttered dubiously, "but then again, it's not a good idea to let this guy run around unsupervised for too long."

"So we're going?" Aqua asked, feeling fired up. She felt so full of energy that she felt like she would go stir-crazy in minutes. "Right? Right?"

He laughed. "Calm down. You're making me uncomfortable here, bouncing around like that. We're going, but carefully. I don't want him to catch us off guard like last time. And we're walking there," he added, pointing a finger at her.

Despite her disappointment, she agreed. She had wanted to ride Terra's Keyblade Rider again. On foot, they made their way to the beach, intensely aware that the city was suspiciously quiet. Every step brought them closer to what she imagined would be the fight of their lives, and she inched closer to Terra as they walked, feeling safer and happy that he was around.

When they reached the beach, Aqua shivered. It was colder that she had remembered from yesterday. She stood far back from the water, rubbing her arms until she realized she was only getting colder, her hands getting sweat all over his bare skin. Terra stood near the water's edge, looking just as troubled as she felt. Holding her hands behind her, she took a step forward to go calm him down, but something cold clamped down on her hands, twisting them uncomfortably behind her back. She screamed, but stopped when she felt something sharp at her neck. She couldn't see her attacker, but Terra's expression when he turned around told her everything. He looked ready to summon his Keyblade.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Atrileng lectured, his greasy voice oozing down her ears. "If you want her to stay in one piece, that is."

Terra gritted his teeth in anger. "Leave her out of this! She's got nothing to do with any of this!"

"Is that so? And why, pray tell, is that? You're apprentices of Eraqus."

"I'm the apprentice, not her! If you want to take your revenge out on someone, it's me! She's just a normal person, not involved in any of this!"

Atrileng chuckled. "Really, you think I'd fall for that? A 'normal person' who can wield both magic and a Keyblade? There's no such thing. You're as bad a liar as you are Keyblade wielder, boy."

It took a moment before Terra replied, and in that moment, Aqua could hear her heart pounding in her chest, feel the knife against her skin and Atrileng's breath on her arm. She could hear the waves lapping against the shore and the seagulls in the air. She became hyperaware of everything around her in the silence, every hair on her body sticking up in fear. Whatever Terra was about to say, she knew she wasn't going to like.

"You win. I'll do whatever you want. Just… don't hurt her."

Aqua felt the blood drain from her face. "No, Terra, you can't! Don't do this!" she screamed, and Atrileng did not attempt to stop her. "Don't do something like this!"

Terra ignored her, his eyes glued to the ground. "Promise me. Promise you'll let her go unharmed."

"I'm a man of my word, of course," Atrileng breathed, sounding arrogant. "You have my word. She'll not be harmed as long as you do as I say."

"Terra, stop this! Don't do it! Please, don't do this!" she screamed, eyes wide in disbelief. "Please, Terra, this isn't worth it!"

Atrileng chuckled. "The man has made his decision, my dear. There's no backing down from a _promise_," he mocked, and Terra cringed. "Now, as my first order of business, I want you to accept me as your new Master."

"Of course," Terra said, and Aqua shivered.

Atrileng grunted, unconvinced. "Prove it. _Bow_ to me. _Kneel before me_ as _proof_ of your _allegiance_."

"No, Terra, you can't!" she sobbed, wishing she could do something to stop him. "Don't do this! It isn't right! You can't kneel before this… grease ball! Don't put yourself on a lower level than this guy! All he's gonna do is walk all over you! Don't Terra, please! Please, listen to me!"

Much to her horror, Terra disregarded everything she said. Slowly, he got down on one knee in the sand and bowed his head. Aqua stared at him, unable to believe what she was seeing, while Atrileng laughed triumphantly. Her heart sank so much that she though it dropped into her stomach. Seeing her friend, who she thought so highly of, bow before this monster, she felt utter despair.

"Excellent! Excellent," Atrileng laughed, "My next order: give me your Keyblade!"

Shifting back to his feet, Terra extended his hand and summoned his Keyblade, the blade pointed down. Holding it in both hands, he stepped forward to hand it over. Aqua didn't even have the heart to protest. She watched silently, unable to forgive him, but unable to hate him, seeing the blank anguish on his face

And then she noticed his eyes. While his face was pained, his eyes were burning with confidence, some sort of plan. She'd seen it enough times to know what it meant, but Atrileng hadn't noticed, didn't care, or didn't know what it meant. Terra was planning something, and she was ready.

Atrileng dropped the knife to reach for the Keyblade, oblivious to Terra's grip on the key chain, and that's when all hell broke loose.


	9. Hope

**Chapter 9 - Hope**

* * *

Aqua's home world, Fifteen years before _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep_

* * *

As Atrileng grabbed Terra's Keyblade, he dropped the knife, and a few things happened all at once. Aqua wrestled herself from his metal grip without problem. Terra yanked the key chain off his Keyblade. _Terra Firma_ changed into _Earth Shaker_, and Atrileng, unprepared for its weight, tipped forward. Seizing the opportunity, Terra jumped him, giving in to pure fury as he knocked the man over and started attacking him with his bare hands. Aqua grabbed _Earth Shaker_ by the handle and tried to run with it, but it was much too heavy, so she resorted to dragging it slowly away from the fight. With a roar of anger, Atrileng managed to push Terra off, knocking him away with a metal backhand, which sent him flying. Terra skidded into the sand a few feet away from Aqua.

Recovering, he grabbed his Keyblade from her, hefting it with more success than she'd had. "Thanks. I'm glad you caught on."

"You were planning this from the beginning!?" she screeched, summoning her own Keyblade.

He nodded. "Cover me. I've got an idea, but I need time to prepare." He whispered hurriedly to her what he needed her to do. "Think you can handle it?"

"Now we're talking," she smirked. "You bet. I'll take it from here." She ran forward, leaving Terra to his task as she readied herself for hers.

Atrileng was furious. "You've picked the wrong person to mess with! I'll obliterate you!" With a wave of his hand, he summoned a pack of ten or twelve Neoshadows. "I'll teach you children a lesson you'll never forget!"

"Being an adult doesn't make you any better," Aqua sneered, sticking out her tongue. "You're still just a big meanie."

Aqua fended off the Heartless, making sure to stand in the same spot, not moving from where she was. Atrileng was so blinded by rage he didn't notice what was going on. Neoshadows dived at her from all sides, but Aqua cast reflect, making the bounce off, and then concentrated magic into her Keyblade, wrapping the blade in water from the ocean. Any Heartless she hit burst into dust, other bouncing off her shield into the water. Her position was perfect if she was going to win, but Atrileng wasn't satisfied. He summoned more Heartless, not stopping even when it was obvious that he was pushing his limits.

Suddenly, over the sound of Neoshadows in agony, she heard it: a whistle. The signal. Dropping her shield, she jumped out of the way, hitting the sand hard. Atrileng, in that moment, realized what she had accomplished by holding her ground in that exact spot. Standing behind where she'd been standing, the only blind spot in his line of sight, was Terra, holding what looked like a giant cannon. The cannon was twice as big as he was and incredibly heavy looking. Terra had to support it with both hands to keep it steady, and even then, he staggered under its weight. The back end of the cannon was formed by the blade, its different sections pulsing like an active motor, and the hilt-guard acting as the muzzle of cannon, glowing with a bright white light.

"Ultima Cannon," he shouted, and the cannon glowed brighter in response, "FIRE!"

The cannon fired a bright beam of white light, consuming everything in its path. The water lapped against it like a solid material, unable to pass the powerful beam's pathway. Staring at it, Aqua was temporarily blinded, but when she regained her sight, she was too shocked to respond. All of the Heartless, numbering in the hundreds, had been blasted out of existence by the single shot. Atrileng had used his metal arms to shield himself and had survived, but when he tried to summon more Heartless with a wave of his hand, he found the metal had melted together.

Gritting his teeth, Terra steadied the cannon once more. "Again! FIRE!"

Another powerful blast exploded from the cannon, sending Terra skidding through the sand. Without anything else to protect him, Atrileng took the full force of the blast, consumed in light until the beam vanished. Steam rising from hideous burns on his skin, he collapsed to the ground, his metal arms having completely dissipated in the blast. Aqua got up, her legs shaking protesting so much that she had to use her Keyblade as support. She rushed over to Terra, who wobbled even more than she did. When she reached him, his Keyblade returned to its normal form and he collapsed to the ground, completely drained of energy.

"I…" hissed Atrileng, his voice producing more steam from his burnt face, "I… How…? How!?"

"You were defeated, Atrileng, because you underestimated the strength of a heart chosen by the Keyblade," a voice replied, and Aqua up to see Master Eraqus walking along the beach to them, Keyblade at the ready, "You underestimated because of their age, because they're children, but you forgot the strength of their hearts. A heart with a true path can overcome anything. Very nice work, Terra, both of you," he smiled.

"Yes, sir, Master Eraqus," Terra chuckled, raising his arm in a weak thumbs up before dropping it back to the ground with a groan.

Atrileng hissed. "Eraqus… burn… I hope you burn… worse than I have… I hope… one day… that your precious apprentices… pay you the same… courtesy… that you've shown me… I hope you rot…"

Eraqus stood over him, staring down at the man with unforgiving eyes. "You'd better hope that never happens, for your sake. I was sure you had died that day, Atrileng, after losing your arms and that much blood. I couldn't come help you or we would have both died that day. I lamented for a long time that I couldn't help you and it caused me a great deal of pain, but there are things we can't undo. You've been beaten by my apprentices, and that's something that you can't change. I would be proud, if I were you. These two will make great Keyblade wielders someday, and their actions will change the universe. This time, you'll die and I won't feel sorry anymore. Goodbye."

Terra chuckled tiredly as Master Eraqus came to check on them. "You talk big for someone who did nothing to help."

"You talk big for someone who keeps breaking my rules. How many times have I told you that firing the Ultima Cannon more than once in a row could kill you, especially because it's a prototype?" Eraqus lectured.

"Yes, Master," Terra grumbled, closing his eyes. "I'll keep that in mind-"

"-next time. You always say that, and you never listen. This is why I loathe putting you in charge of anything."

"And who's to blame for that?"

"Enough," Aqua snapped, making both of them silent, "Terra, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes," he replied, sighing. "The Ultima Cannon isn't finished yet, so it runs on physical energy. I should be able to walk again in a week… or two."

"If you say so," she sighed, rolling her eyes.

* * *

Two weeks later, Master Eraqus announced that it was time for them to leave. At first Aqua didn't understand, but then she remembered that they weren't from her world, and that they had to return to manage the Land of Departure.

Terra looked at her from the seat next to her. "You're coming with us, aren't you, Aqua?"

She was surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's up to you whether you want to come with us, but it means you may never come back here," he explained. "The choice is yours."

"What do you think?" she asked them.

Terra blushed. "I don't want to make your decision hard for you, but… I think you should come with us. Master Eraqus and I get along fine, but it'd be nice to have someone else around… someone I can talk to. And there's all kinds of worlds to see and people to meet. You'd love it."

"I agree with Terra," Eraqus nodded, his arms folded, "It would be a good experience for you, and you can accomplish much more with us than you can by staying here. But, as always, the choice is up to you."

Aqua took some time to think it over. On one hand, she had her home, the place she had been born in, with the beaches she loved and the people she knew. Her mother and father were both there, but she would never get so see then again. On the other hand, she had the chance to become an apprentice and learn to wield her Keyblade, along with Terra, who had become closer to her than anyone, and Master Eraqus, while they traveled to different and unusual worlds, protecting people from the Heartless. When she weighed her options, the simplicity of the decision made her laugh.

"There's no question to it," she smiled. "When do we leave?"

* * *

Realm of Darkness, One year after _Kingdom Hearts II_

* * *

Aqua laughed in spite of herself, remembering her first adventure. She had realized since then that the universe wasn't as simple as she had thought. She had trained with her Keyblade, grown up alongside her best friend, and had experienced things that others her age could only dream of. Then Ventus had been added to the equation and the three of them had become inseparable… well, almost inseparable. Despite that, she still loved the two like brothers and was proud of her actions, even if they hadn't done any good. 'At least I tried. That's good enough for me. One day, Terra, Ven and I will be back together again, and that's the way it'll stay.'

Standing up, not having known how sore she was, she stretched and continued walking along the beach, comforted by the resemblance. She felt like a kid again and as though nothing could stand in her way. It was silly, childish thought, but it didn't matter. She felt free, even trapped in the darkness. 'Maybe… it'll be like that first time. Maybe… I'll meet someone…' As she finished with her thought, she noticed someone sitting on a rock, silhouetted by the moon. Heart pounding fast, she raced over, her stomach dropping when she realized that it wasn't a silhouette, but a black coat. The person inside looked up at her from under the hood and spoke. She recognized the voice, but couldn't place it at first. It was Ansem the Wise, ruler of Radiant Garden.

Ansem explained to her as much as could remember, recounting his betrayal by his apprentices, led by Xehanort; the time he spent in the darkness, and the events that had occurred in the ten years that had followed her battle with Xehanort; the formation of Xehanort's Heartless and his attempt to obtain Kingdom Hearts through the Princesses of Heart; and of Xehanort's Nobody, Xemnas, and Organization XIII's plans to build Kingdom Hearts using the Keyblade. As he described the events to her, it became apparent to her just how long she had been in the Realm of Darkness and how things had changed. 'To think, all this has happened, and I knew nothing of it… It's scary, thinking about it that way.'

As Ansem finished, he settled back into his position and sat silently, staring out into the horizon. Aqua stared at him for a long moment, waiting in case he had something more to say, but he didn't. She sighed internally. 'I'm thankful he could share this with me, but it doesn't do me a lot of good, stuck here. I have to keep wondering: is there any hope for the three of us? Have we used up all our chances?'

She shook her head, smiling. 'No, I can feel it. It's still there. There's still hope. As long as we keep believing that hope exists, it will find us, wherever or whatever we are. As long as he's still out there, we have hope.' She felt tears rolling down her cheeks, tears of joy, and she could feel Ven and Terra, wherever they were, resonating their agreement. 'As long as we believe in him, he can do anything. So, I'll choose to believe in him, and I'll choose to have hope, and I'll wait until you come…'

"_Sora_."


End file.
